Best Free iPad App of the Week: History

Who doesn’t like free? And who doesn’t like great iPad apps? When the two come together it’s great stuff. With that in mind, we offer up a quick review of an excellent free iPad app here every Saturday.

This week’s pick is History, the official app for the History Channel. It brings all the most popular History shows to the iPad.

Pawn Stars. American Pickers. Swamp People. Now you can watch your favorite HISTORY shows wherever and whenever you want…on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch!
The HISTORY app is a great new way to access full episodes and clips from all that HISTORY has to offer. New content is added all the time.

Here are some of its key features:

The HISTORY app enables you to:
•Watch full episodes and clips of your favorite HISTORY series including Pawn Stars, Vikings, American Pickers, Swamp People and many more.
•Create a customized Watchlist of your favorite shows.
•See exclusive clips from HISTORY shows, never before shown on television.
•Explore the Topics section for a selection of clips about the most fascinating categories of history

The app currently lists 24 History Channel shows, and has a section for newly added content. The app’s four main sections are Featured, Shows, Topics, and Just Added. On individual show pages you get a short summary of what the show is about, a dropdown to select its seasons, and a list of all full episodes and clips available for it. There are also links to add the show to your Watchlist, share it via Twitter or email, and to buy episodes/seasons on iTunes.

The Topics setion, as the name would suggest, lets you look for content by topic. Topics include American History, American Civil War, Ancient History, Bet You Didn’t Know, British History, Cold War, Deconstructing History, and lots more. This is the best place to discover some excellent older content.

There are ads before the videos in the app, but they’re relatively short. There is no AirPlay support right now, but the App Store page for History lists it as coming soon.

If you’re a Comcast or DIRECTV subscriber you get access to ‘even more content’ – and the developers say more providers will be added soon. I’m with Time Warner Cable so I don’t know what the extra content is yet.

** It’s important to note that History content is only available for streaming in the US.

The app has already got me hooked on one new show I hadn’t had a chance to watch on regular TV yet – Vikings. If you’re a fan of History Channel shows, this app will be fine addition to your iPad.

One thought on “Best Free iPad App of the Week: History”

Since when is the history channel a showcase for phony-reality shows? It’s mind numbing. Is History about the past, antiquity, and learning ornustratings-based tv for useless entertainment ? # nohopeforhumanity.